8 Easy Ways to Boost Your WiFi

Wi-Fi is one of the most useful and important parts of using a computer, and yet it’s also one of the most frustrating. If you suffer with slow speeds, bad reception, or any other Wi-Fi issues, here are 8 ways you can extend your WiFi speeds in your home or business.

Use the Latest WiFi Technologies

One of the best ways to make sure your network is as fast as possible is to use up-to-date hardware. The main thing you need to know is that Wireless A, B, and G are old which means slow, and wireless N (and the even newer wireless AC) will give you the fastest speeds. But you should note that you’ll need both a wireless N router and a wireless N card in your computer if you want the full speed boost.

Find the Perfect Spot for Your Router

If you want the best signal, you’ll need the router out in the open, free of any walls and obstructions. Elevate the router if you can. Lastly, make sure it’s in the center of your house, so you have the best coverage possible throughout your home

Find the Right Wireless Channel

If you have neighbours, their router may be interfering with yours and causing the signal to be worse than it normally would be. Wireless routers can operate on a number of different channels, and you want yours on a channel with as little interference as possible. Use a tool like WiFi Stumbler or WiFi Analyzer to find the perfect channel in your house.

Get Rid of Interference from Other Appliances

Other routers aren’t the only thing that can cause interference. Phones, microwaves etc. can mess with your signal as well. Buying a dual band router can help with this, If you don’t want to buy new hardware, you can always try moving your router further away from interfering appliances.

If someone in your house regularly video chats, plays online games, or uses Netflix then they may be hogging bandwidth and making the internet slower for everyone else. you can use something called Quality of Service to reign in those bandwidth hogs. With QoS, you can prioritise certain applications (say, video chat) over others (like video games) so the most important applications get the bandwidth they deserve.

Turn an Old Router Into a WiFi Repeater

If that still doesn’t help, you’ll need to get a range extender for your home. This will stretch your WiFi further in the house

Set Your Router to Reboot on a Schedule

If you’re one of the many people that has to reboot their router every so often so it doesn’t drop out, then there is a solution. You can run a few tests to make sure the problem isn’t caused by heat, old firmware, or excess downloading, but an easy way to solve the problem is just automatically reboot it once a day or so. When you’re done, you shouldn’t have to reboot your router so often (which is great if your router’s all the way up in the attic).